ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- What happens in Los Angeles doesn't stay in Los Angeles. Not when you have a president who believes that fearmongering is a terrible thing to waste.

First, Trump ravaged L.A. by unleashing a battalion of goons -- made up of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marines, California National Guard troops and an alphabet soup of federal law enforcement agencies. And let's not forget the mysterious masked men who -- without warrants, credentials, badges or the authority to arrest -- acted like bounty hunters snatching people off the street at random.

Now Trump wants to take this circus on the road. The next stop is Washington, D.C., where the president this week took control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deployed about 800 National Guard troops to curb street crime and clear away homeless encampments.

I didn't realize that Trump knew how to reach the D.C. National Guard?

Ironically, Washington is the site of one of the worst acts of violent crime in our nation's history. You'll recall that Trump failed to call out the National Guard to defend the U.S. Capitol in the face of an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, which he called "a day of love."

Of course, the rioters that day were Trump supporters who had been convinced by the right-wing echo chamber that the election was stolen. Shortly after being sworn in for a second term, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 of them.

The president is much less forgiving toward criminals and homeless people in the nation's capital. Trump has complained about "the filth and the decay" that mars the nation's capital which he calls a "nightmare of murder and crime." It's up to him to save the city.

"Just like I took care of the Border, where you had ZERO Illegals coming across last month, from millions the year before, I will take care of our cherished Capital, and we will make it, truly, GREAT AGAIN! Before the tents, squalor, filth, and Crime, it was the most beautiful Capital in the World. It will soon be that again," he said on Truth Social.

But how did Trump handle immigration? Sloppily, of course.

Apprehending people without due process -- especially when done by civilians -- is what we call kidnapping. Even though the feds ran the show, local police will clean up the mess.

The trust that the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department had built up with immigrant communities in the nation's second largest city has been destroyed. It'll be a long time before immigrants once again report crimes or serve as witnesses to help police and prosecutors put away actual criminals.

Even with all that manpower, U.S. immigration officials only arrested 4,163 immigrants in the Los Angeles area, according to Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Since the administration's occupation of L.A. began on June 6, 2025 -- about 10 weeks ago -- that pencils out to a little more than 400 arrests per week. This meager haul is a far cry from the quota set by administration officials of 3,000 immigration-related arrests per day.

Nationwide, the outlook is only slightly brighter. According to the Department of Homeland Security, daily apprehensions now fall between 1,000 and 1,500.

Now, undaunted by his failure on the left coast, Trump is shifting his ire to Washington.

It's obvious what Trump's endgame is, and it's not pretty. With help from his accomplices -- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller -- the president is trying to accomplish two goals at once.

First, he wants reverse the demographic changes that occurred over the last 30 years and make America white again. That means rounding up or scaring off the ethnic group that the president often treats like a pinata: Latinos. During a recent episode of the hit animated show "South Park," the cartoon version of Noem shouts during an immigration raid: "If it's brown, it goes down!" It's also significant that Washington, D.C., is more than 40% Black.

Second, he wants to flex his muscle by spreading his unique brand of authoritarian rule to America's cities -- at least those run by Democrats. He wants the leaders of these municipalities to bend the knee and follow the pitiful examples set by universities, law firms, media and a spineless Republican Party. In the billionaire's world, might always makes right.

In order for America to survive, Trump needs to fail at both endeavors.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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